n i k k e i i m a g e s Berry picking at magna Bay, BC, c.1947 Takahashi family collection nnm 2012.15.1.2.139 A Publication Of Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre ISSN # 1203-9017 Spring 2013, Volume 18, No. 1 Front Cover Photo – Yoko Takahashi Picking Berries 1 The Strength of Nikkei Women 2 Telling Everyone’s Stories in the Museum, by Beth Carter 3 The Diary of Kazue (Shiyoji) Oye, translated by Stan Fukawa 4 Jean Shigeko Kitagawa , by Masako Fukawa 10 Celebrating Nikkei Women 16 My Share of Good Luck, by Margaret Lyons 18 Treasures from the Collection 24 CONTENTS Berry pICkINg aT MagNa BaY, BC The STrengTh of C.1947 TakahaShI family collection Nikkei Women NNM 2012.15.1.2.139 ur current issue celebrates the strength of Japanese Canadian women. Since the earli- est days of immigration, women have been expected to help support the family. They Oworked in canneries, took in sewing, ran shops, helped on the farm, did cleaning and also maintained their children, housework and cooking. It sounds exhausting! This photograph shows Yoko Takahashi at age 15 working in the berry farms at Magna Bay, on Shuswap Lake. During the war years, the Takahashi family first went to Tashme, and in 1945 moved to Rosebery and New Denver. Because work in the Slocan Valley was scarce, many com- munity members travelled to the berry and fruit farms for several weeks of intense labour in the harvesting season. The museum collections include thousands of photographs of women at work that assist us to understand the many diverse roles women embraced within the Japanese Canadian community. 2 TellIng everyone’S STorIeS In The muSeum By Beth Carter Did you know that women make up the majority of staff in museums across North america? The Nikkei National Museum is a good nikkei Images is published by the Nikkei example of this – all five regular staff members are women. But is National Museum & Cultural Centre this a problem? Does this create a bias in the exhibits, programs and editorial Committee: stories that we tell? Beth Carter; Stanley fukawa, frank kamiya, kaye kishibe, Linda kawamoto Reid, I don’t think so – but I would be very interested to see more young edzard Teubert, Mitsuo Yesaki Nikkei, both men and women, take an interest in preserving history and culture within the community. Rather than worry about a gender editorial Design: kaori Tanaka divide, it may be more important for Nikkei to take ownership over researching, defining and representing their own history. I recently Subscription ton ikkei Images is free with your attended a fascinating workshop put on at Simon fraser University yearly membership to NNMCC: examining how Nikkei history, art and culture is being examined and family $45 | Individual $35 studied by Japanese Canadian community members. It became clear Senior Individual $25 that research was essential to the significant initiatives and gains Non-profit association $TBa $2 per copy for non-members during the Redress movement, and is just as important to individuals in their quest to understand their own identity. NNMCC 6688 Southoaks Crescent, The Nikkei National Museum was built out of a dream from the Burnaby, B.C., V5e 4M7 Canada community to preserve primary source materials that are rapidly TeL: (604) 777-7000 FAX: (604) 777-7001 disappearing. We invite community members to donate their WeB: www.nikkeiplace.org collections so they can be preserved for future generations. 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Opinions expressed in this publication are museum – we hope you will get involved! those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the editors or of the NNMCC. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- memBerShIP FORM Name: address: CITY pROVINCE pOSTaL CODe Tel: e-mail: yes, I will become a member of the National Nikkei Museum and heritage Centre at the following level: $25 Senior Individual $TBa Non-profit (age 65 or over) (please provide incorporation number) $35 Individual Membership $ __________ $45 family Donation* $ __________ (member, spouse or common-law partner and children) Total $ __________ If you wish to receive our program guide by email instead of by mail, please check here. * for family memberships, please attach the names and email addresses of the other persons joining under the same membership. 3 The Diary of Kazue oye (nee Shiyoji) translated by Stan Fukawa ranslator’s Forward: Mrs. Kazue Oye, who turned 100 years of age on Nov. 19, 2012, is a remarkable person. Although born in Steveston, she was educated mainly in Japanese, and was schooled in English only after TJapanese children were allowed to attend Lord Byng School. She then attended secondary school in Japan, which explains why she is culturally much more Japanese than Canadian and why she wrote her autobiography in Japanese. Her parents were surprisingly permissive, especially when one considers how much more strict most Japanese parents were with girls than with boys in those days. She attained the status of teacher which was not common as a woman. Her memory for dates is legendary as can be seen in her date-specificity and she still writes pages of Buddhist sutras daily as a means of maintaining her memory of Japanese characters. She has had, all her life, a burning determination to maintain her mastery of the Japanese language and to share it with her students. Sadly, Mrs. Oye passed away peacefully on January 17, 2013. - Stanley Fukawa, Translator Certified by STIBC I was born on nov. 19, 1912, in a cannery house belonging to the gulf of georgia Cannery. I was the firstborn of my father, Yakichi Shiyoji and mother koito and was named kazue. I was born prematurely, weighing only four pounds. There was not enough mother’s milk so I was raised on cow’s milk. a man named Jack O’Neil had cows at about where the corner of Chatham St. and Second ave. is today. My mother went morning and evening to buy milk in order to get the freshest milk possible because she was worried that it would affect my tummy if the milk was not fresh. every day she prayed and did whatever might make the tiniest difference. On cold days she wrapped me up in silk floss (mawata). at the New Year, at mochi-tsuki time, I went to the mochi cakes which had been arranged at the shrine and merrily tossed them around like toys. My parents did not scold me for my naughtiness but were happy that I had become so healthy. I was born tiny and my parents constantly worried about my health for the first six months but after that I was healthy and didn’t catch colds. 4 When I was four-and-a-half or five, one Sunday, I The following spring, at the year-end ceremony, was taken by Mrs. Narae Odamura (née Sakai) to the I received an award for being the third best Japanese United Church for the first time. I was asked student. I remember being praised and being given by the minister what my name was. I remember that congratulatory gifts. I think I received almost all my father’s friend kinjiro Tsuji answered, absent- of the Diligence awards. It probably helped that I mindedly and because I looked like my dad “this is was healthy and did not miss any school. I enjoyed kazue Yaki” from my father’s first name, Yakichi. So I going to school so much that I studied eagerly every said I was kazue Yaki although I was a bit confused. day. at that time, the language of instruction at the When I got home, my mother asked me why I had school was mainly Japanese and a Caucasian teacher done that. named Mrs. harris came to teach us english. Most of the Japanese were living in cannery houses and did It happened more than 95 years ago but I can still not pay taxes and so we were not allowed to attend remember being confused about whether I was the nearby Lord Byng School. Later, the Japanese kazue Yaki or kazue Shiyoji and what my mother said. community donated toward the construction of a new school and so Japanese children were allowed September 1919: My parents intended for me to to attend the Lord Byng School in 1925. I was in begin in kindergarten in September and then in april grade 5 at the time. of the following year to start school. They wanted to put me in kindergarten but I told them, “I’m On April 1, 1928 I graduated from the Steveston going to go to elementary school; I’m not going to Japanese Language School Supplementary education go to kindergarten!” When my mother explained my program Year 2. as the top graduating student, I read determination to the principal, he agreed to let me the valedictory address. at Lord Byng, I was in give it a try. I could have jumped for joy. grade 8. My wish was granted and from the next day, I entered at that time, there was no middle school in Steveston the fishermen’s Benevolent association Japanese for me to go further in my Japanese education.